A few PCFers asked me to create a template to improve general upperbody strength. They are not seeing significant progress on press, ring dips, handstand pushups, pushups, and pullups.

So for those that aren’t having issues in just one or two movements (which might improve with the Handstand Pushups and Pullup template) but with upperbody strength in general, here’s a simple rotation of exercises that you can add before or after (or before and after) a WOD:

Week 1
Day 1
2 Rounds
5 Ring Dips with Turnout and 1 second pause at the top (scale with feet)
5 Skin the Cat
-Rest-
“Death by DB Press”
Perform one Press the first minute, two Press the second minute, etc. You have the entire minute to perform all the reps and you can rest the weight on your shoulders, but not on the ground. Note total rounds and reps. When starting, pick a weight that you can do at least 5 rounds.

Day 2
3 Rounds
5 Ring Pushups w/ 1 second pause at the top (control the descent and ascent)
3 x 10 second Flexed Arm Hang
5 Handstand Pushup Negatives

Day 3
3 Rounds
3 x 10 second Handstand Holds
5 Support Shrugs
5 Pullup Negatives

As a baseline and a simple means of tracking progress, I’d like you to post:

-Max Handstand Hold (in seconds)
-Max Ring Hold (in seconds, more advanced athletes should turn the wrists out)
-First attempt at Death by DB Press

We’ll be doing the DBDBP every week, so that’ll be our easy metric. Then we’ll re-test the Max Handstand Hold and Max Ring Hold every month.

None of these days should leave you fried or take more than 10 minutes to do. If you are getting crushed or taking forever, reduce the volume.

The key here is “do something!” Like Rip says “Your deadlift will improve with vigorous nose picking if you’ve never deadlifted before.”

Post to comments if you are going to give this a try or if you have questions.

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I just want to consolidate some items that I plan on reading over the next few weeks, most of which are off of James Smith’s page, per Ricky Frausto’s Reading List.

The Ulterior Motive By Dave Tate with James Smith

Athletic Preparation or Destruction By James Smith

Interview with James Smith By Jason Ferruggia

Strength and Power Development Considerations for Young Athletes By James Smith

Training for Mixed Martial Arts- Interview with James Smith by Jason Ferruggia

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I’ve been doing some “Plandomization” lately, but also got sick after reintroducing dairy into my diet. So starting this very second, that’s back out. Wanted to post my WOD plan and my recent WODs:

Recent WOD and Nutrition

Introduced cheese and heavy cream into my diet on 20091231 after 30+ days of eating no dairy/legumes/grains based off Dr. Harris’ post on IF, dairy, and performance: PaNu and High Intensity Training.

Thursday 091231
6 total Assisted Muscle Ups
(LB) Box Squat
2-2-2-2-2-2-2
165-185-185-185-185-185-185
Row 40:20×5. Post distance.
Compare to CFE 091125.
Distance: 1011

Friday 100101
“Cindy”
AMRAP 20 Minutes
5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats
Rounds: 16 + 2 Pullups
Compre to PR: 18 rounds
Notes: Guess I’ll take it, might have lost a round in there somewhere as this WOD fucked me up. Considering it’s the first 20 minute METCON I’ve done in about 4 months or so, guess it’s not too bad.

Saturday 100102
(UB) Press
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
165f-165f-165f-145-145f-135-135-135-155
Notes: Need to remember to keep the hands close in to the shoulders and wrists straight, feel a lot stronger there.
For Time:
All sets unbroken
10×30DU
Time: 12:45
Notes: Really bad time with this, 2nd round took me several minutes to finally get. Need to focus on going slower on this type of WOD. Speed work should come in separate WOD.
2 Rounds
A1. 10xGHRaise
A2. 10 3 xRing Inversions
Notes: The first two parts took 2.5 hours, didn’t have time for the abs.

Sunday 100103-Friday 100108
Sick, cold symptoms

Starting on 100105 wasn’t eating heavy cream or cheese b/c I was out of town.

Saturday 100109
PCF WOD 100109
30 Squat Clean to overhead, 155lbs
Time: 8:00
Notes: Thrustered the first 8 or 9. Kept the hands close to the shoulder and focused on pulling myself down in the clean and bouncing out, seems to have helped a lot. Still gassed on the last 10.

Sunday 100110
PCF WOD 100110
2 Rounds
50 Jumping pull-ups
40 KB Swings (1.5/1)
30 DB Push-press (55/30)
20 Burpees
10 Clean and Jerk (135/95)
Time: 20:09 Rxd
Notes: Comparatively did very well on this WOD. But right elbow was throbbing for about two hours post WOD.

Monday 100111
Rest Day
Notes: Felt pretty beat up.

Tuesday 100112
3×6 Assisted Muscle Ups
(TB) Rack Jerk
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
215-215-225-225-DNF
Notes: Right elbow as not feeling good, so decided to call it quits. On the plus side, 225 didn’t feel that hard.
Tabata Sprints
Treadmill
Incline: 12
Speed: Started at 8.0, finished at 6.0.
Notes: Probably should have warmed up a bit more. This killed me, my heart rate seemed like it went through the roof pretty quickly, then my legs died. First time I’ve done this in a long time. Obviously need to keep it up.

Reintroduced cream and cheese on this day. Felt pretty crappy.

Wednesday 100113
Unschedule rest day.
Feel crappy, sniffly, joints are sore, back is sore. Going to reset to 100% Paleo, just threw out the heavy cream and cheese from the fridge.

The Starting Template and Where That’ll Probably Go

Here’s what I started off with:

Brian PCF WOD Plan

This is all from Rut’s MEBB Template. However, after listening to some of Robb Wolf’s Paleolithic Solution, I think I’m going to stay at the set/rep scheme I’m doing now, which is multiple sets at one or two reps. This is because I don’t really need to gain any mass, I need to get stronger. Less reps at a higher wait should encourage strength gains w/o muscle mass gains.

The overarching principle is that I’m not going to get much better at pullups or double unders, but I’ve got a lot of progress that I can make in Handstand Pushups, Muscle Ups, Running, and Overhead Strength. Also, while I work on those weaknesses, I won’t decline too much at my strengths. I’m also not going to get much better at my weaknesses unless I really focus on them and get after them as hard as I can. I think it might be a good idea.

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As if you didn’t know right….

I’m going to throw a few of my top stretches/therapies for the shoulder up over the next few days. This isn’t really long or in depth enough to do a multi-part series, but you get what you pay for.

Stretch Numero Uno - The Oly Lifter Stretch.

Grab a 45 lbs barbell, rack it high on your back with your hands close to the shoulders.

Have a buddy who is preferably bigger than you (more on this in a second). Have him raise your elbows to the limit of your flexibility. Try to really relax the shoulder joint.

Drive your elbows into his hands for 5 seconds, relax, back off for 1/2 second, then he presses your elbows up and stretches the shoulder for 10 seconds. Repeat 3-6 times.

You need someone bigger because as soon as you get your elbows pushed up the first time, you’re going to have a strong impulse to kill your buddy due to the excruciating pain in your shoulder capsule. Bryan R. made the right call for a partner

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I’ve been reading some Euclid lately, so let’s start with our givens and move out from there to establish our proof:

-Meat should be delicious
-Alec Baldwin is God

Let us proceed.

Firstly, due to the widespread government price supports for corn, soy and grain and regulation designed to deter competition, nearly all meat sold in America is fed these “staples” which are biologically impossible to survive on (like us eating tree bark exclusively). Hence the widespread use of hormones and antibiotics to keep these animals alive long enough for them to be harvested for their meat.

Secondly, while Joel Salatin and Michael Pollan and the like have showed that you can make money and feed people pasture raised meats, I’m also told that Al Franken was funny once. Lesson: Don’t believe everything you read in People Magazine.

First Conclusion: The reason we put marinade on meat is because we buy the corn/grain/soy fed kind, which tastes like wet cardboard driven over by shaky manure trucks at high rates of speed.

Second Conclusion: That imagery cannot allow you in good conscience to eat anything but pasture raised meat anytime soon.

So since a geometric proof in indisputable, and if you try to dispute it a zombie Descartes will come back to life and eat your brain, then do the following:

-Email Alison, get on her meat buying email distro. She delivers to the box people, this doesn’t get easier.
-Use a good fat of your choice (say these or these), salt, and pepper on your meat. Occasional aromatics will be allowed on certain Zoroastrian holidays. Mess with this system, and Descartes again will eat your brain.

Now didn’t that feel good? And Deelishes too!

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Have been doing a lot of tinkering with this before I rolled it out. I don’t have significant data to back this up, but I have enough that I feel comfortable asking a few folks to give it a try and see what happens. Here are the two plans, they can be done separately, but if you suck at both, go ahead and give them both a try.

Pullup Progression
Intent: Increase the volume under significant load.
Plan: Do these as pre/post-WOD work, not to be done on days when the WOD calls for pullups or if still recovering from a WOD with pullups. All three days shouldn’t be done in less than a week of time.
Scaling: This progression should be good for everybody in the meaty part of the curve. People with significant upperbody weakness or folks that have a good amount of kipping pullups already will need to scale down/up.

Day 1
3-5 sets x 10 seconds, Flexed Arm Hang

Day 2
3-5 sets x 5 Negatives, jump up over the bar, slowly lower down to full extension

Day 3
Kipping pullup practice with band. Don’t work to failure, just trying to encourage good muscle memory. If you need more than a blue band, sub Adrian’s Kipping Pullup progression on this day.

Handstand Pushups Progression

Intent: Increase volume under significant load, increase range of motion.
Plan: Do these as pre/post-WOD work, not to be done on days when the WOD calls for HSPU or significant pushing movements (ring dips, muscle ups, bench, pushups, press, push press, push jerk) or if still recovering from a WOD with significant pushing. All three days shouldn’t be done in less than a week of time.
Scaling: This progression should be good for everybody in the meaty part of the curve. People with significant upperbody weakness or folks that have a good amount of HSPU already will need to scale down/up.

Day 1
Death by Handstand Pushups (scaled to DB Press).
Select a fairly heavy weight, you shouldn’t be able to get more than 6 rounds your first time through.
Do one DB Press the first minute, two the second, three the third, etc.
Keep track of rounds + additional reps.

Day 2
3-5 sets x 30 seconds, Handstand Hold

Day 3
3-5 sets x 5, Negative Handstand Pushups to greater depth.
I usually do two 45lbs plates with an abmat in between (to cushion hitting my head more than anything).

What I’d really appreciate is some volunteers to try this for a month and get me some data. What I need in the comments for each is:

Pullup Progression:
-Current number of max set deadhang pullups
-Current number of max set kipping pullups
-If neither of these apply, max set of pullups with least amount of assistance.

HSPU Progression:
-Current number of max set HSPU (non-kipping, hands just outside shoulders)
-If this doesn’t apply, max single set of DB Press at 55 lbs for guys, 35 lbs for gals (or a “heavy” weight scaled to your level). You can rest the weights on your shoulders, but don’t put them down.

Please post this baseline data to comments, track your compliance on your personal blog, post to comments again in one month so we can consolidate data.

Post questions to comments.

30 Comments »

Just want to put this out there, I’m only done Episode 2, but I’ve subscribed on iTunes and recommend you do the same. More great info from Robb Wolf!

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Stole this quote from a John Stossel article over at Reason.com. From Pierre-Joseph Proudhon:

To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place(d) under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.

Happy New Year!

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So the plan for the last few days is to zoom in on a measurable amount of macronutrients (Protein, Carbohydrate, and Fat) that will optimize performance and keep me from being hungry. So entering my food intake in FitDay here.

Here was today’s breakdown:

This is not including any cooking oils that I used as well.

So if we do a breakdown of these macronutrients to Zone Blocks, what we get is:

Protein: 30 Blocks
Carbohydrate: 10 Blocks
Fat: 67 Blocks

I can live with that, we’ll just see how my body weight moves around and how my performance feels.

I did a Tabata KB Swing and Thruster WOD today and felt pretty good, I also PR’d Death By Handstand Pushups. Will keep you posted on how this works out.

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PR’d at 4:00 compared to 4:20 on 090211.

Broke this one up much more than the one in February, but still super slow on thrusters. Going to work on lighter front squat and thrusters over the next few weeks to try to get a little more explosive out of the bottom.

Fran from Brian Wilson on Vimeo.

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